72 Indian Museum Notts. [ Vol. VI. 



have now been identified, and it is proved that they could not have 

 been the originators of the mischief. In other words, some other insect 

 probably starts the injury by laying an egg or eggs on the young 

 fruit : the grub or grubs hatching out bore into the fruit and at the 

 wound thus caused, which would leave a small decaying spot on the 

 surface, the flies probably lay their eggs or deposit the maggots. This 

 would seem to be the probable manner in which the flies got into the 

 fruit. It is necessary therefore to institute a search at an earlier period 

 in the year for the aggressor. 



The following are extracts from Colonel Rennick's letters on the 

 subject to Indian Planting and Gardening. They show that the 

 matter is one of considerably serious import to fruit growers in the 

 Himalayas : — 



" I have lost heavily by my fruit crop gathered after the ist Sep- 

 tember. Every pear had been tainted and 40 to 50 per cent, of 

 certain kinds of apples. 



"I do not know what to do. I have sunk over ££50,000 in laying 

 out these orchards and in importing the finest specimens of fruit from 

 France, Holland, England, and Austro-Hungary. Now that half the 

 orchards are in full bearing, these horrid flies destroy the latter crop, 

 which is the more valuable, piecemeal. Last year I lost 50 per cent, 

 of my pears. This year every pear and almost every other apple was 

 bad. You may judge the extent of the loss when I tell you I have 

 barely recovered the Ri,8ou I have paid for carriage after the ist 

 September. 



"The rains were so heavy and the foliage and the grass were so 

 numerous that we could discover no flies about, and the manager did 

 not spray the trees as the bark equipment of Vilmorel is barely power- 

 ful enough to spray the Kulu fruit trees, which attain, unlike those at 

 home, a very large size. The sun came, and with the sun the fly which 

 deposited its thousands of worms all round. I was away in Shigri 

 prospecting, and my gardeners hardly knew what wholesale mischief 

 the little insect was working. 



" The fly in question is a brown fly marked with two streaks and 

 spots on the back. It is the "dirt" fly — the brown one, and not the 

 green or blue bottle. It deposits small living worms of this size ( — ) 

 perhaps a little finer. After a while the little beast sinks into the fruit 

 and destroys it. Last year I collected a whole lot of these maggots, 

 put them into a large«mouthed bottle with 2 inches of earth and put in 

 some of the rotten apples and pears. I was under the impression they 

 were the maggots of the codlin moth, but at the end of 14 or 15 days 

 here were as many flies as there were worms, somewhat yellow in 



